Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to comment on this quickly. I am aware of the time and I am concerned that the government will move the gag. I first of all want to remind the Senate that last year Senator Fielding moved to split this bill to take out the section relating to mergers, because he said at the time that the changes effectively sideline the ACCC and significantly boost the powers of the tribunal, which is a quasi-judicial body staffed by judges and business executives. Small business and consumers will need legal representation to appear before the tribunal, and my concern is that the tribunal will not be exposed to the wide range of views and concerns on mergers that are currently put to the ACCC and that form a key part of the ACCC’s decision-making process.

So I think the Senate deserves a detailed explanation as to why last year Family First said it was concerned about small business and this year is doing everything in its power to facilitate big business getting bigger. That is exactly what has happened in the last few days: big business getting bigger. It happened with the media laws and now it is happening here, because what Family First is about to do is to support a move that will allow companies to take their merger plans straight to the Australian Competition Tribunal rather than to the competition watchdog. The competition watchdog will no longer have the decision-making powers it currently has; it will merely have a consultative and advisory role. That is the difference, and big business know it. That is why they are rubbing their hands together. That is why they are really keen to see this pass.

And let us not have any pretence into the future that Family First has anything to do with small business. It has got everything to do with facilitating the big end of town and rushing the big end of town to the tribunal, where, as it currently stands, there is an insufficient period of time for the tribunal to look at the huge complexity. That is why I will be supporting the amendment from Senator Joyce to extend the time, at least, in which the tribunal is able to consider these matters. We all know these are commercially complex matters and the way it is being structured is to avoid the ACCC, take away the ACCC’s decision-making role and give them an advisory role. It is unconscionable that someone who said last year that was something we could not tolerate this year suddenly finds it not only tolerable but desirable.

I want to say that, unlike Senator Murray, I believe that a deal has been done in relation to this legislation and I am looking forward to hearing Family First tell us what it is. I am not at all surprised that the government wants to move the gag on this. It wants to protect Senator Fielding and Family First from the scrutiny of the Senate, because it is much easier to just do a doorstop saying that families matter rather than coming in here and explaining to small business families why they do not matter and why, in fact, the Packer family matters much, much more than the corner stores.